The duo behind one of the country’s top comedy podcasts recently spent three days at Northwestern State University working with theatre and dance majors.

Comedians Paul Mattingly and Matt Donnelly recorded an episode of their podcast, “Matt and Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social,” and worked with theatre students interested in improvisation. They conducted a three-hour workshop with members of the Out On A Limb improv group and a second workshop for all NSU Theatre and Dance students. Members of Out on a Limb were guests on “Matt and Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social.” The NSU Student Activities Board helped fund the appearance. Donnelly and Mattingly were accompanied by audio producer Jacob Smith, a 2005 graduate of Northwestern State.

“This gave us a chance to show the students some of the opportunities available to them to make a living as an artist,” said Donnelly. “We also wanted to give them some insight into how difficult it is now.”

Mattingly and Donnelly met on stage eight years ago during a comedy showcase. They started their podcast three years ago at heyscoops.com. Fans of the show are nicknamed scoops. The podcast averages more than 7,000 downloads a day and was named Best Comedy Podcast at the 2016 National Podcast Awards.

“We’ve been fortunate because of some crossover from other podcasts that helped us,” said Mattingly. “We’ve have always tried to be authentic. We love doing this. We started doing something we like and are grateful to have the audience we have.”

Mattingly is a comedian, author, improv teacher, actor, podcaster, singer and songwriter. He trained with the Groundlings L.A., as well as the Second City Training Center Las Vegas. He is one of the few to progress directly from the Second City Training Center to its mainstage, beginning with “Scriptless” and then moving on to the mainstage show as a featured performer at the Second City in the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Prior to teaching for Improv Vegas, Mattingly was a regular instructor for the Second City Training Center in Las Vegas. He has also performed with the improv troupes, Improvneato and Super-Yum-Yum-2.

Mattingly worked for several years at “Star Trek The Experience” as the Janitor character and as Klingon Lt. Commander Voq’ha. He is also a host on ‘The Ugly Couch Show” video show. Mattingly and Donnelly perform weekly at The Bucket Show at the Art Square Theatre in Las Vegas. He teaches various improv classes, directs the improv show “Joke Kune Do’ at the Onyx Theater in Las Vegas and is a fill-in actor for Alibi Las Vegas.

Donnelly is working on the “50 Shades! The Parody in Las Vegas.” He is a co-host on Penn Jillette’s “Penn’s Sunday School Podcast” as well as writer/director on “Alibi Las Vegas.”

Donnelly spent six years teaching at the People’s Improv Theater in New York. He co-created the Neutrino Video Projects, which appeared at the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and has been franchised to 11 other cities around the world. After moving to Las Vegas he performed with Wayne Brady at the Venetian and occasionally works with “Las Vegas The Game.”